jerry amp

[willmusic]

Hey everybody. Think I may have posted about this before (can't remember????) but yeah, I too have read something about backstage mesas as well as one being kept in the trunk of his beamer. Now if I could just remember where I read it....

[Maybeck09]

as i understand it he mainly used 2 Fender twins. a silverface and a blackface. Both rebuilt many a time and as others have said were later pushed my McIntosh preamps.
The Mesa Boogie he used, studio/backstage and for fun.

If you get to a decent music store that carries Mesa check out the current catalog which contains a nice history and timeline ( also a pic of Jerry playing) The first were in fact Fenders that they modified Princtons I believe.

[GratefulPat]

thought i was right about that

[tigerstrat]

as i understand it he mainly used 2 Fender twins. a silverface and a blackface. Both rebuilt many a time and as others have said were later pushed my McIntosh preamps.
The Mesa Boogie he used, studio/backstage and for fun.

If you get to a decent music store that carries Mesa check out the current catalog which contains a nice history and timeline ( also a pic of Jerry playing) The first were in fact Fenders that they modified Princtons I believe.

OK, here's how it really goes:

In the very beginning, JG used a BF Twin.

By around 68, he had three BF and/or SF Twins onstage; it was also around this time that Wickersham says the Twins were fed into MC275 power amps. (so I don't know why he had more than one, maybe as backups)

By 72, only one Twin is seen onstage and fed into a MC275's.(fall 72 a MC3500; he also used a MC3500 at the Orpheum 76 shows)

73-74 still one Twin, fed into two MC2300's (Wall of Sound)

75 - 10/3/76: two Mesa Mark I's (only one used, the other backup) fed into one MC2300. He recorded Blues For Allah on the Mk I.

10/9/76 - 12/31/89: the familiar SF & BF Twin mounted into a single Twin combo cabinet.(SF main rig, BF backup) ONE Twin was used, into one MC2300.

90-95: Groove Tube Trio into MC2300

footnote: JGB tour February 1980, he used a Mesa Mark IIA head fed into a MC2300.

There is also a pic from a Reconstruction show (1979) that shows Mark I's set up onstage. I figure that sometimes when he played non-GD gigs, his main rig was already on a truck headed for a GD tour stop.

[betteroffdeadnc]

Tigerstrat,
Great stuff!! I didn't realize that Jerry was using the tube McIntosh amps until he apparently wanted more power and went with the 2300s. fascinating, thanks.

-s

[betteroffdeadnc]

Just ran across this. It looks real well made. Sorry if this post doesn't belong here. I wasn't sure but thought that you might like to see it. I particuraly like how the did the rear of the cabinet.

-s

[paulinnc]

Hey Betteroffdead,

Do you do the jamband meet ups in Raliegh? I am a mmember of that group but have yet to make one of the jams. Between work and school I am pretty busy, but starting mid January I will have Fridays off again so hopefully I will be able to make at least one a month. I am not a very good player yet but that is why I want to go. To learn, meet other people into the same sort of stuff I am. I think it is cool that you actually started a band out of it.

[betteroffdeadnc]

Hey Paul. I haven't been there lately because between rehearsals and gigs with BOD most of my playing time has been taken. Its a really great opportunity to play with a lot of different people with varying skill levels and musical preferences who are all there to have fun playing. Its easy to learn a lot from everyone, and teach a lot at the same time. They get $10 to cover costs for 3 hours of playing using their amps and PAs. They even have drums for drummers so that they don't have to bring them. The other guitarist in BOD owns the place and has stocked it with a very nice selection of Fender and Mesa amps for guitarists, and the rooms sound great.

Let me know when you get time to go to one and I'll see if I can meet you there.

Steve

[tigerstrat]

Tigerstrat,
Great stuff!! I didn't realize that Jerry was using the tube McIntosh amps until he apparently wanted more power and went with the 2300s. fascinating, thanks.

-s

BoD, not sure at all but I think the MC2300's might have been introduced by McIntosh in 72. In early 1973(prior to 2/9/73), not just Jerry but the entire GD sound system was converted to MC2300's.

[paulinnc]

Hey Paul. I haven't been there lately because between rehearsals and gigs with BOD most of my playing time has been taken. Its a really great opportunity to play with a lot of different people with varying skill levels and musical preferences who are all there to have fun playing. Its easy to learn a lot from everyone, and teach a lot at the same time. They get $10 to cover costs for 3 hours of playing using their amps and PAs. They even have drums for drummers so that they don't have to bring them. The other guitarist in BOD owns the place and has stocked it with a very nice selection of Fender and Mesa amps for guitarists, and the rooms sound great.

Let me know when you get time to go to one and I'll see if I can meet you there.

Steve

Awesome!!! IT will be at least mid January, my goal is to make 1 session a month.

[waldo041]

Tigerstrat,
Great stuff!! I didn't realize that Jerry was using the tube McIntosh amps until he apparently wanted more power and went with the 2300s. fascinating, thanks.

-s

BoD, not sure at all but I think the MC2300's might have been introduced by McIntosh in 72. In early 1973(prior to 2/9/73), not just Jerry but the entire GD sound system was converted to MC2300's.

i'd have to believe that the change was also made for a cleaner power amp. you all know what tubes do when pushed hard.

peace,
waldo

[betteroffdeadnc]

I also know what transistors do when pushed hard, and its not pretty. Fact is they just don't make tube amps with as much power as they do transistor amps. Its a matter of the physics and mechanics. They get too large and unmanageble not to mention too hard to maintain. Watt for watt a tube amp can sound as clean and tight as a transistor amp if that's what its designed to do. Listen to the old tube McIntosh tube amps. Its just that after you hit about 6 output tubes its a fire breathing monster and a transistor amp will be half the size and weight, and more reliable due to increased effeciency. Jerry also started to rely much more on effects for his sound than on the sound of his poweramps. It was actually a "lack of sound" that the McIntoshes contributed, just volume.

[unk0wndarkstar]

Fender Twin Reverb

[waldo041]

I also know what transistors do when pushed hard, and its not pretty. Fact is they just don't make tube amps with as much power as they do transistor amps. Its a matter of the physics and mechanics. They get too large and unmanageble not to mention too hard to maintain. Watt for watt a tube amp can sound as clean and tight as a transistor amp if that's what its designed to do. Listen to the old tube McIntosh tube amps. Its just that after you hit about 6 output tubes its a fire breathing monster and a transistor amp will be half the size and weight, and more reliable due to increased effeciency. Jerry also started to rely much more on effects for his sound than on the sound of his poweramps. It was actually a "lack of sound" that the McIntoshes contributed, just volume.

i agree in part. the macs were used for their clean output, that part i do agree with, however the preamp tubes in front were a huge part of jerry's tone. not to mention the tube reverb. even when he switched to the TRIOS, which is a tube preamp, and the Tubeworks Real Tube Reverb.

the fact that output tubes can color /saturate when pushed, is why he went to the consistently CLEAN transistor McIntosh. he needed/wanted more reliable/manageable power on stage, and he found the transistor based MC2300

effects became a part of jerry's arsenal, but the FTR preamped to a consistently clean output amplifier, to JBL speakers was the base of the whole rig for a long time.

peace,
waldo

[jenkins]

He was definetly runnign this configuration so he could pusdh the tone of the blackface through all of his speakers without distorting it. and it worked great, his otne was always perfect.
It is obvious that jerry used this configuration because of the quality of the tone he was getting.

I seriously doubt that how much the amps wieghed, their reliabilitiy, changing the tubes, or the resale value mattered at all. These are things that people who play in bars consider.

They were the grateful dead playing huge shows. He always had backups of everything ready to go, so reliability shouldn't matter. He had roadies to carry his equiptment, and he wasn't selling his old gear. He was either keeping it or woud give away a lot of it.
I cant see the weight or resae value coming up in jerry's mind when considering amps